Thailand is torn between the monarchy of the past and the politics of the present.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Modern Bangkok has become a stage for political theater, from peaceful protests to a military coup.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Many rice farmers in the Chiang Mai area of northern Thailand are “red shirts,” members of a populist movement that has won every national election since 2001. After each victory Bangkok’s traditional elites have reclaimed power by military coup or through court rulings.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Bangkok police below a billboard of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej come under fire from antigovernment protesters. Four people died and 64 were injured in the February 2014 clash. The twilight of the 86-year-old king’s reign is one factor underlying the unrest.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Fashion designers Vatit Virashpanth and Itthi Metanee fit a model in one of their latest silk gowns. High society in Bangkok is flourishing in the wake of an economic boom that started in the 1980s, but widening income inequality leaves most Thais struggling.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

At a mass ordination in northeast Thailand, 89 young men will exchange their white ceremonial cloths for Buddhist monks’ robes. Fewer Thai men are entering monastic life, and the monkhood is struggling to remain relevant to more consumer-oriented generations.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Buddhist symbols pervade Thai culture, but religion is losing its central place in many people’s lives as the nation becomes increasingly secular.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

A high society awards event in Bangkok celebrates luxury living for those who have reaped the benefits of Thailand’s economic growth of the past three decades.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

An actress schmoozes at a swank event put on by a media firm that publishes the High Society 500, a list of Thailand’s foremost socialites and celebrities.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Not far from the high-rise hotels and malls of the touristy Sukhumvit area, poor Thais squeeze into makeshift homes in Bangkok’s Khlong Toei slum. This couple and their 15-year-old daughter (sleeping) make a living picking through garbage for recyclables.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Sweat and hope pervade Thai boxing gyms, where young men like Phetphanom Meenayothin seek to fight their way out of poverty by attaining stardom in the popular national sport. Phetphanom, 22, here training in Bangkok, is from a family of rubber-tree tappers in the south.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Young women dance at a go-go bar in the Patpong red-light district of Bangkok, which caters to foreigners. It is common for women to work as entertainers to support their families in the countryside.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Icons of different eras meet as Dinsow, a robotic home health aide, attends to a Buddhist monk.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Not all changes sweeping Thailand are so benign. Ardent red shirt Sitpipong Sittisuan was shot in the head and lost part of his skull during antigovernment protests in 2010.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Muslim girls study at a publicly financed school for orphans and needy children in Pattani Province, on the southern tip of Thailand. Populated chiefly by ethnic Malays and once a sultanate, Pattani is among the nation’s least developed regions.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Malay Muslim insurgents killed in a firefight with the Thai Army lie outside a Pattani mosque. Ethnic Malays predominate in the three southernmost provinces, annexed in 1909 by what was then Siam. Some 6,000 have died since 2004 in an ongoing bid for autonomy.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

A father grieves at the funeral of his two young children, who were killed in a February 2014 grenade attack outside a shopping mall in Bangkok. The attack targeted an antigovernment rally near the mall, where the children had just finished eating.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Antigovernment protesters took to the streets of central Bangkok early in 2014 to shut down the city and try to force out Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The Constitutional Court removed her from office May 7. Fifteen days later the military took over, in a coup endorsed by the monarchy.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Antigovernment protesters took to the streets of central Bangkok early in 2014 to shut down the city and try to force out Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The Constitutional Court removed her from office May 7. Fifteen days later the military took over, in a coup endorsed by the monarchy.

Photograph by James Nachtwey

Thais revere King Bhumibol—currently the world’s longest serving monarch—his youthful picture held close on a street in the northeastern province of Loei. Long unassailable, the monarchy faces new scrutiny in an era of growing political divisions in Thailand.